SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP3 is one of the latest industry-standard OS’s for large scale organizations. It supports industry-standard hardware, RAS features and even more security enhancements for a secured platform for delivering IT services reliably and cost effectively.

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP3 Installation Guide

SUSE is a paid subscription and you can try SLES 11 SP3 with its full set of features for 60 days and if you need the full set of security subscription furthermore, you will have to buy it. Otherwise you can still use SLES 11 SP 3 as a normal Linux OS.

SUSE is a multinational open source software company that produces LINUX software and platforms. Products of this German based company are reputed for its benefits and features like:

No vendor lock-in

Maximum choice and flexibility

Enterprise quality.

In industry level most of organizations are fond of SUSE’s paid subscription because it gives unique number of advantages like below which allows you focus on more valuable strategic initiatives.

Timely tested and approved security patches.

Quick resolution of support problems.

Patches that preserve application compatibility.

Hardware and software certifications.

Technology assurance program identification.

You will need a SLES 11 SP3 (SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP3) ISO image to make this happen. I have showed here how to install SLES 11 SP3 and configure network in it for further configs and installations. This is a typical installation which followed industrial best practices (best practices may differ according different organizations).

SLES 11 SP3 has released with a number of enhancements for virtualization, Secure boot support, new drivers and support for latest hardware relates to server storage and networking.

Virtualization – SLES 11 SP3 now supports up to 2TB RAM and 160 CPU cores per guest host rather than its previous version which was 512 GB RAM and 64 cores. It also now supports VM Nesting (run a vm on another vm) on more intel processors.

UEFI Secure Boot – This feature allows the user to boot SLES 11 SP3 on standard Windows8 system, which Secure Boot is already enabled. When secure boot is enabled users will be restricted in operations to Kexec, kdump and software suspend/hibernate.

Storage – SUSE has updated the file system code so that, among other things, Btrfs now supports sub volume quotas. OCFS2 support is provided by the High Availability Extension. SUSE doesn’t support the use of ext4 and the SLE kernel is therefore only able to read from ext4 file systems where write support has not been manually activated.

For further clarifications visit this link for new features in SLES 11 SP 3.

Installing SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP3

1. Boot your system with SUSE SP3 CD/DVD or ISO and select the tab “installation”. You can select the tab “Repair Installed System” to repair a corrupted OS installation.

Suse Boot Options

2. Agree to the license terms and click “Next”.

Agree Suse License

3. In this window SUSE is giving us the opportunity to check the media we are trying to install the OS from. Since it is not really necessary and time consuming, click “next” to avoid media check.

Media Check

4. Select your option and click “next”. In this case we are going to do a fresh installation. In a scenario like you have SLES 10 and you need to upgrade the system to SLES 11 without losing data, you can select the option “Update an Existing System”.

Select Installation Mode

5. Select the Time Zone you desire and click “next”.

Select Timezone

6. Select “Physical Machine” and click “next”. Consider about your need here. Even if you’re creating a virtual machine and you need it to work like a normal server, I recommend you to select “Physical Machine” option when installing the OS to the VMs.

Choose Server Scenario

7. Next, click on the link “Partitioning” to custom partition the disks or click “next” to go ahead with default partitioning schema. In this case, I am partitioning my disk as I desire.

Select Installation Settings

8. Select “Custom Partitioning” and click “next”.

Select Custom Partitioning

9. Select your disk and click “Add” to add a partition on the disk.

Select Installation Disk

10. Select “Primary Partition”. When you create a partition, consider what you really need from the partition. You can create extended partitions as the name implies which extends other partitions. But extended partitions are not suitable for booting.